Labor Day

At the end of the 1894 Pullman Strike, when over 125,000 railroad workers went on strike in protest of low wages and poor working conditions, President Grover Cleveland made Labor Day a federal holiday as a tribute to the workers. Thirteen of the striking workers were killed by the United States military during the strike; Labor Day is a celebration of their memory.

This year, the work that men and women do, particularly men and women who work in the building and construction trades, seems much more tangible to Aimee and to me. The excavators, the masons, the concrete block contractors, the carpenters, the plumbers, the electricians, the heating and cooling whizzes, the insulators, the painters, the roofers...these guys are helping to build the kitchen we will eat in, the fireplace we will gather around on cold winter days, the porches we will laze on in the humidity and heat of August, the home we will make a life in.

Just this last week, Eddie, the roofer, finished his job just in time for some big storms that rolled through southeastern Michigan. Thousands lost power, roofs caved in, basements flooded. But not at 40 Oaks. It was the first time that no water leaked into the house, sparing us work and worry. And it was thanks to Eddie.

The past week was also spent prepping the basement and garage so concrete can be poured as soon as those permits, delayed by the holiday weekend, come through. I removed debris that had been accumulating, Jesse delivered sand, Joe leveled the spaces and covered them in plastic, and Aimee, Peter, and I spent an evening taping the seams.



Mickey and I spent all of Labor Day working on odds and ends around the house. We built the raised hearth for the fireplace along with many other things that needed to be finished.
In addition, John, the electrician, and his son, Jeff, have been hard at work. There are wires running all through the house now, and it's getting close to being ready for insulation and drywall.
This week the basement and garage should be poured and the guts of the house--plumbing, electric, heating and cooling, low voltage--are just about done.

It's work we've done with a whole lot of help. Work done by friends, by family, by real professionals, and all of it done by people who know that work is what makes the world go around. So this week, we celebrate the workers who have helped raise our house. It's not just for Aimee and me, it's for Peter, too. We just hope he grows up in a world where work, the kind that fills the lines in your palms with grit, is still something that people value.